How does Shweta manage to work 12 hours a day and still party hard at night? How does Ashwin study till late night for his AIEEE and yet attend the morning classes? How can Dinesh play one hour of football after a tiring day at work?
Like many youngsters of today, all of them are ‘on’ energy drinks with fitting names like- Monster, XXX, Burn, Cloud 9 and Red Bull which keep them going without tiring them out.
Energy Drinks are thus a huge help in a scenario where we want everything and right now. While we may feel energized for some time and thankful keeping us awake at odd times, there is a huge controversy regarding its safety and effect on health. This article is aimed to look deeper into the potential side effects of drinking energy drinks.
What most Energy drinks mention:
Energy drinks help to
- Boost your energy
- Perk you up
- Party all night
- Work for more than 20 hours
- Lifts your spirit
If an over-worked employee or a sleep deprived student reads this, he or she is sure to gulp down few of the cans of these energy drinks. This explains the sudden popularity of these drinks abroad where they have started to dominate the beverage market. In India too this trend is catching up and everyone from journalists, college students and party animals, all are turning to the energy drinks to keep their energy levels up.
Red Bull’s UK website even claims to
Students and youngsters are increasingly hooked to this drink, a survey conducted showed that about 22% of the youngsters use energy drinks on a daily basis.
Skanda Shastry, 24, prefers to drink Red Bull when he had a tiring day or after a workout. “I generally only drink about 1-2 cans of Red bull but I have seen people drinking about 4-5” he says. Skanda like many youngsters does not know the side effects of drinking too many energy drinks and hasn’t experienced any harmful effect yet.
Let’s see what makes an energy drink?
The energy in the Energy Drink comes from two ingredients- Caffeine and Sugar. An average can of Red Bull contains about 80mg of caffeine which is less than 140 mg of caffeine in a cup of coffee. But what makes it potent is the combination of caffeine with sugar which also gives us an instant boost of energy. Other than these most of the energy drinks contain:
Taurine: A kind of amino acid naturally present in our body which is known to regulate heart rate and muscle contraction. When under stress, exertion, illness, Taurine can help us, though in general, we don’t require a Taurine supplement. There is also a controversy regarding the combined effect of Taurine with caffeine which shoots up the blood pressure and increases the risk of abnormal heart rhythm.- Ginseng: It is a substance found in Green tea, Ginseng is also a stimulant and is said to aid weigh loss though it hasn’t been proven yet.
- Guarana seeds: It is a stimulant which also contains guaranine which is 2.5 times stronger than caffeine. It is known to increase temperature and helps in suppressing appetite.
- Insotol: It is a member of Vitamin B complex family. It helps to convert the food into energy, in this case helps the conversion of sugar.
- Glucuronolactone: It is a kind of compound present in all connective tissues in the body. It is present in the energy drink to prevent glycogen depletion in the muscles.
Though energy drinks try to market their drinks by adding components like Green tea extracts (Ginseng) and Vitamin B (Insotol), there are questions being raised about the combined effect of these ingredients in the drinks.
What energy drinks Forget to mention?
There are a range of side effects that these energy drinks forget to mention on their covers which all the users need to know about. While one can of energy drink does not cause these side effects, drinking more than one can a day can surely set some of these in action.
- A High followed with a Crash of Energy: Energy Drinks contain generous quantities of sugar (some even contain upto 14 teaspoons of sugar) because it is easily converted into energy and makes you feel less tired afterwards. Caffeine also removes any kind of fatigue from your system but it is also true that as soon as you use up that energy, you experience a crash. You feel extremely tired and lethargic and need another energy drink to keep your energy levels going.
- Energy drinks cause dehydration: Caffeine is a diuretic which causes our body to lose essential fluids, even the extra sugar in those energy drinks, increases your chances of being dehydrated. If you drink too many energy drinks without drinking adequate water, you may become dehydrated.
- Energy Drinks may cause rapid heartbeat: The Caffeine in the energy drinks leads to secretion of adrenaline which causes rapid heartbeat as well increased blood pressure.
- Energy drinks may cause insomnia: Caffeine blocks adenosine, a chemical responsible for sleep. So it makes you feel more alert and stay awake. But those who don’t actually want to stay wake, may find it difficult to sleep!
- Energy drinks may lead to cardiac arrest: Caffeine while giving you energy also causes a rise in your pulse rate and irregular heart rhythms, which can be harmful for blood pressure patients, pregnant women and children. There are many cases of children and teenagers drinking these drinks and suffering from cardiac arrest. Thus there is a major movement worldwide for the drinks to issue warning against these side effects and ban it especially for children.
